Uni Ika Ai"Hera" (video)

When he's not purveying pop gold with Lucius, Peter Lalish has been making some slightly more experimental tunes with Uni Ika Ai. The Brooklyn-based four-piece recently released their debut album Keeping a Golden Bullseye in the Corner of My Mind, and "Hera" from that record has now been given some visual accompaniment.

The track is an amalgamation of bubbling electronic sounds and manipulated vocals, and it's been paired with a black-and-white video that finds a group of mysterious figures sporting masks and making their way through woods and water, performing a series of spooky rituals. The clip is as eerie, unsettling and intriguing as the song itself.

"'Hera' came about in a moment of true collaboration. While Peter was improvising chords and getting the hang of a new pedal we had bought, I started reciting a sort of stream-of-consciousness verse," explains the band's Maia Friedman. "The lyrics that ended up in the song are the same lyrics that came out of my mouth that one day. What was, at first, a recitation of total nonsense eventually took on a meaning that we would come to understand later on in the creation and recording of the song."

"The idea of 'Hera', the character in the song, is as an omnipresent spirit who is watching with an admiring yet vengeful eye," Lalish added. "We (humans) try our hardest to honour and listen to her hopes for earth, but in the end we follow our human desires, and at that point it's in her hands to decide wether we live or not."

Uni Ika Ai will be bringing their new material to Canadian fans at a Toronto show in support of Hannah Georgas on December 7 at the Mod Club. You can see details for that and the rest of the band's upcoming gigs listed below. Beyond that, hit play to check out the video for "Hera."